Communication devices such as radios including radiotelephones and pagers are well known in the art. Communication devices of this type provide users of the devices with wireless communications by transmitting and/or receiving signals.
Pagers provide a user with notification and a phone number of a persons who is trying to contact the user of the pager. The phone number of the calling party is typically entered by the calling party and transmitted to the pager by a paging system. Once the phone number of the calling party is received by the pager, the phone number is typically stored in memory of the pager and/or shown in a display on the pager. The user usually recalls the phone number from memory and/or views the phone number on the display to determine the phone number of the calling party. The user calls the calling party back at the phone number by using a telephone device, via a cellular or a landline connection for example. In this scenario the user can conveniently view the received phone number in the pager display while dialing the phone number using the telephone device.
Radiotelephones provide a user with notification that a party has called when the user is not available to answer the radiotelephone. The phone number of the calling party is typically entered by the calling party and transmitted to the radiotelephone by a radiotelephone system. Once the phone number of the calling party is received by the radiotelephone, the phone number is typically stored in memory of the radiotelephone and/or shown in a display on the radiotelephone. The user usually recalls the phone number from memory and/or views the phone number on the display to determine the phone number of the calling party.
A radiotelephone and a pager together in a single portable combination unit is known in the art. In such a combination unit or in a radiotelephone alone, the user reads and uses the phone number received from the calling party and stored in memory to return the call to the calling party the phone number received.
However, one disadvantage of using the phone number received from the calling party and stored in memory is that the number of digits in the phone number provided by the calling party varies. The user may need to enter ten, seven, five or four digit phone number, for example, depending on how familiar the calling party thinks the user of the communication device is with the phone number received. The user needs to enter the appropriate digits ahead of the phone number received as well as reenter the phone number received to produce a complete phone number. This causes user of the communication device to dial the complete phone number needed to place the return call.
Another disadvantage of using the phone number received from the calling party and stored in memory is that the calling party and the user of the communication device may not be in the same telephone area. Typically, the calling party does not know the location of the user of the communication device. The user may need to enter the appropriate long distance area code and the local area code ahead of the phone number received as well as reenter the phone number received. In this situation the user of the communication device also needs to dial the complete long distance phone number to place the return call.
Another disadvantage of using the phone number received from the calling party and stored in memory is that the communication device typically only has one display. Therefore, the user must clear or store the received phone number and remember the received phone number to reenter it in the display while placing a return call to the received phone number. The steps of remembering the appropriate digits to enter ahead of the received phone number as well as recalling and manually reentering the digits of the phone number received is unnecessarily taxing on the user of the communication device.
Because of the varying number of digits the calling party may enter, the unknown location of the user of the device to the calling party, and the use of only one display in the communication unit it is cumbersome for a user of the communication device to easily use the phone number received from the calling party and stored in memory to place the return call to the phone number received. Accordingly, there is a need for a method for editing a received phone number prior to placing a call to the received phone number which is easy to use and enables the user to enter fewer keystrokes to place the call to the received phone number.